a blog about faith, hope, and mostly love

becoming a gym rat

No, I’m not on a health kick. I am referring to oft-quoted line about the Psalms being a “gymnasium of the soul” meaning that reading through the psalms of the bible you get an emotional workout, from very high highs to utterly despairing lows.

My heart has been all over the emotion map in the past, let’s say, 6 months. From the time we announced our engagement to the wedding itself to the most perfect honeymoon ever to coming back to the reality of life as newlyweds figuring every day life out and being an insta-family with two adolescents. Not to mention the pressures of careers and calling, the mixing of two interests and ambitions and lifetimes into one.

It can be daunting to say the least, and while no one is trying to kill us, as far as we know anyway, sometimes the psalms like these are my only comfort.

from Psalm 40:

For evils have encompassed me
beyond number;
my iniquities have overtaken me,
and I cannot see;
they are more than the hairs of my head;
my heart fails me.

Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me!
O Lord, make haste to help me!
Let those be put to shame and disappointed altogether
who seek to snatch away my life;
let those be turned back and brought to dishonor
who delight in my hurt!
Let those be appalled because of their shame
who say to me, “Aha, Aha!”

But may all who seek you
rejoice and be glad in you;
may those who love your salvation
say continually, “Great is the Lord!”
As for me, I am poor and needy,
but the Lord takes thought for me.
You are my help and my deliverer;
do not delay, O my God!

And I know I’m not alone. Maybe the psalms are proof of this. We know that the authors, David and others, went through the fire and the high waters to experience every fear and doubt, every pain and sorrow, every dread and every hope we feel.

But more than this we know the One all of the bible points to. We know that He has felt every emotion we have, and He has cried out to God in His times of desperation. And I am filled with awe at the One who could have stopped it all and crushed His enemies but chose not to, for me, for you, for us. And He says to me in the quiet of the morning hours, wait on me. and I say, deliver us, o my God.